The Association Between the Albumin and Viral Negative Conversion Rate in Patients Infected with Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Purpose: The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic is the severe global pandemic with large numbers of infected cases and deaths in recent decades. The previous studies were all about the influence of albumin (ALB) for the severity and mortality of in-patients infected with COVID-19. But few studies exist about the influence factors to achieve viral negative conversion. Therefore, this study conducted an exploratory study to investigate the effect of albumin on negative conversion rate. Methods: Among the 190 hospitalized patients with moderate COVID-19 who had a course of disease longer than 30 days, 102 achieved viral negative conversion in 30-45 days and 88 not after 45 days. Taking other variables as concomitant variable, Cox proportional hazard regression model was applied to explore the influence of albumin to negative conversion rate under various factors. Results: By comparing patients who could and could not achieve the finally viral negative conversion, a possible nonlinear relationship between the continuous variables and clinical outcomes was examined by a restricted cubic spline regression model. An association was found between albumin levels and hazard ratio of viral negative conversion rate (P = 0.027). The increase of albumin was accompanied with decreases of hazard ratio of viral negative conversion rate (the value of albumin <38 g/L). But when the value of albumin was higher than 38 g/L, the hazard ratio of viral negative conversion rate approached 1, it means that albumin is not a risk factor for the viral negative conversion rate of COVID-19 disease. Conclusion: For patients with COVID-19, albumin is a common and observed laboratory parameter. It is associated with final viral negative conversion rate although its underlying mechanism and relationship with the viral negative conversion rate still need to be clarified.

Parental Preferences of Influenza Vaccination for Children in China: A National Survey with a Discrete Choice Experiment.

The influenza vaccination coverage among children is low in China. We aimed to conduct a nationwide survey to quantify parental preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for influenza vaccination for their children. Parents with children aged six months to 18 years from six provinces in China were investigated by a discrete choice experiment regarding six influenza vaccination attributes. Mixed logit models were used to estimate the relative importance of vaccine attributes and parents' WTP. Interaction analysis and subgroup analysis were conducted to explore preference heterogeneity. A total of 1206 parents were included in the analysis. Parents reported vaccine effectiveness as the most important vaccine attribute. The mode of vaccine administration had no significant impact on parents' preferences. Parents aged over 30 years with higher education or income levels were more likely to prefer no influenza vaccination for their children. The largest marginal WTP (CNY 802.57) for vaccination and the largest increase in vaccine uptake (41.85%) occurred with improved vaccine effectiveness from 30% to 80%. Parents from central regions or mid-latitude areas had a relatively lower WTP than those from other regions. No significant difference in the relative importance of vaccine attributes were observed among parents from various regions of China.

Antecedents and Consequences of Smoking Cessation Intention in the Context of the Global COVID-19 Infodemic.

A growing body of scientific studies has been published to inform responses to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and some have claimed that cigarette smoking has a beneficial or mixed effect on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. The presentation of such findings, unfortunately, has created an infodemic. This study integrated the theory of planned behavior and the health belief model and incorporated findings on addiction from the medical literature to predict cessation intention and support for tobacco control measures in the context of the COVID-19 infodemic. The study found that cessation intention partially mediated the effect of perceived severity and fully mediated the effects of perceived benefits, self-efficacy, and addiction on support for control measures. In addition, a positively-valenced message of the effect of smoking on the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 vs. a mixedly-valenced message was significant in predicting cessation intention, and the positively-valenced message of smoking indirectly predicted support for tobacco control measures. Perceived susceptibility, barriers, and subjective norms, however, exerted neither direct nor indirect effects on the two outcome variables.

Quality Analysis of Chinese Popular Scientific Articles Pertaining to Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (preprint)

Background: To evaluate the quality, reliability, comprehensiveness and accuracy of the popular science information related to the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on the Chinese website.Methods: Searching for scientific articles with the keywords of "novel coronavirus pneumonia" in Baidu, Sogou and 360 search engine at 14:00 on May 22, 2020, and collecting information such as article source, length, upload time, etc. Using JAMA score and 5-point DISCERN scale, two specialists independently analyzed the reliability and quality of scientific articles. Combined with the "Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia Diagnosis and Treatment Program (Trial Version 6)", we made corresponding evaluation on the comprehensiveness and accuracy of articles. Results: A total of 45 scientific articles were included in the study. The average number of words is 2692.27±1267.61, and the average upload time is 11.8±10.80 days. Those popular scientific articles are mainly uploaded by government agencies and individuals. However, the JAMA score, DISCERN score, content comprehensiveness and accuracy of the articles were generally low. Among the 45 popular scientific articles, 27 articles were classified as accurate-content group and 18 articles were classified as misleading-content group. Scientific articles of accurate-content groups mainly came from government agencies, universities and hospitals. The publication date of articles in the accurate-content group is closer, the scores of JAMA, DISCERN and content comprehensiveness were higher (P<0.05). The results also showed that JAMA score, DISCERN score, content comprehensiveness and accuracy of popular science articles uploaded by government agencies, universities and hospitals were higher (P<0.05). The results indicated that there was a significant positive correlation between the scores of JAMA, DISCERN, comprehensiveness and accuracy (P<0.05). Conclusion: Although there are many scientific articles related to the novel coronavirus pneumonia on the Chinese website, the overall detection rate of high-quality scientific articles were low. We are Looking forward to more high-quality medical scientific articles published by government agencies, universities and hospitals. It is suggested that search engines adopt a more optimized sorting method to help more readers get high-quality information.